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Chronology:February-October 1976
February 1976
MoM decree 129:The N1-L3 program is cancelled. Development of space stations DOS-7 and DOS-8 is approved. Development of projects 1K11K25 Energia-Buran,100GK Mosche geostationary Earth resources and observation platform,and 150GK Heavy Rocket Study Phases 1-2 program is approved.
March 1976
Ford's speech at KSC. Fifth test firing of the Space Shuttle Main Engine,for 205 seconds.
April 1976
NBC's John Chancellor takes a tour of Russia'a space center at Star City. Chancellor reports (aired on April 30 and May 6) that the Soviet Union's space program isn't leaps and bounds ahead of NASA:rather,the two space programs are more or less evenly matched.
May 1976
Development as per NASA budgetary request 74-10 of the Cargo Space Shuttle (Shuttle-C) Phase 1 is approved.
June 1976
Last launch attempt of the Europa rocket. This mission,the only successful Europa,places the 503 lb West German Tamich research satellite into medium Earth orbit. Europa is cancelled in July. The first launch of Ariane,Europe's next generation rocket,is anticipated for early 1979.
July 4,1976
NASA's Viking 1 lander touches down at Chryse Planitia,Mars.
July 31,1976
Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev dies peacefully in his sleep,aged 69.
Late summer 1976 (August-mid September)
NASA's Viking 2 arrives at Mars on August 11,its lander touching down at Schiaparelli Crater on the 29th. On August 17,TASS announces that a "careful selection" has ensured that Alexi Kosygin will be General Secretary of the CCCP. The next day,Soviet space scientist Roald Sagdeyev reveals in a BBC interview that the next Soviet Mars probes will be a pair of orbiters in 1977 and orbiter/lander pairs in 1979 and 1981:the 1975 launch opportunity was skipped for "budgetary reasons". The first shuttle SRB test firing,a 15 second event on September 8,is viewed close up by 12,000 guests and on TV by over 100,000 people. Between September 12 and October 2,cosmonauts Anatoly Filipchenko and Mikhail Lisun, the crew of Soyuz 23, fly the second manned mission to the Salyut 5 space station.
October 7,1976
Three days after the 19th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch,NASA is in shock:closeup imagery taken by the Viking 2 orbiter has identified,on the Isidis Planitia,what can only be some sort of moss. However,further analysis will have to wait:NASA's next Mars mission,the Pioneer Mars orbiter and atmospheric probe,isn't due for launch until 1981.
October 24,1976
NASA announces that its next astronaut selection has been moved up one year to allow for the delay of the first Space Shuttle mission to September 1980. Also,the test orbiter Enterprise will be modified for spaceflight after the ALT tests next year:Enterprise's first space mission is not expected earlier than Q1 1984 because of the modifications required for Enterprise's structure and systems.